Can the Flood be contained and eradicated?

Recruit - Bronze

Can the Flood be lured onto a planet, be contained on it, and implode it (specifically not explode | I don't want any shooting away) so the entire planet and everything on it is superheated? What would happen if all Flood were on a ship and shot to the sun or a black hole? Will that completely kill them, or is it "fated" that the Flood is never permanently erased? Can't fire/superheat "purify" the Flood while simultaneously exterminating it? The Flood is certainly interesting, and I know fire/heat weapons do an exceptional job of killing them, so what can an even bigger flamethrower do?

Recruit - Onyx

My answer to this question is tiered and a bit long-winded, but here it goes:

The Flood is too intelligent to have all of its eggs in one basket; it would not allow itself to be "lured" in its entirety to a single planet or man-made installation.

The parasite is not known to be completely contained even right now. For all we know there is a galaxy somewhere in the universe that contains no lifeforms except for the flood.

There are numerous "contained" samples of the flood confirmed on the Halos and (theorized to possibly be contained on) shield worlds. Even if you "lured" the Flood forms that have managed to move around freely, there are still contained samples that could be released and cause the outbreak all over again.

It has been theorized that the Flood could actually have already infected other lifeforms and, just like with ancient humanity, have decided to not mutate the species it has infected (until possibly a later time).

As the Flood is (to the best of our knowledge) corrupted Precursor, and being that the Precursor's understanding of the universe, its laws, neural physics, is so insanely advanced, their capabilities would seem to be almost magical in nature, even to advanced creatures such as the Forerunners. That means we, as a lesser species, have absolutely no frame of reference for the limitations of their capabilities. For all we know they could do just about anything, including things beyond our simplistic reasoning/understanding.

So, there you have it! The problem is your proposed solution is just much too simple for the extremely complex issue that is the Flood :D

ODST - Bronze

"One single flood spore can destroy a species." I think it's near impossible to eradicate every single spore given that even an advanced race like the Forerunners was not able to find a cure during their time. So I think it's a matter of holding out until a cure is discovered. I think all the species are fairly advanced and have access to loads of Forerunner tech, so it's definitely doable.

Marine - Onyx

The Flood are a tool created by the god-race of the Halo universe (The Precursors) to deal judgement to the Forerunners, and to ensure that Humanity is given a proper chance to attain the Mantle. Since their first appearance, the Flood have manipulated everything they've had the least bit of contact with. They cannot be defeated by lesser beings. The best you could hope for would be to pass their test of worth (like ancient humanity did when they sacrificed a third of their population in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the galaxy from the Flood), and have the Flood feign defeat, allowing your greatest weapons to appear to work.

Marine - Onyx

The Flood are a tool created by the god-race of the Halo universe (The Precursors) to deal judgement to the Forerunners, and to ensure that Humanity is given a proper chance to attain the Mantle. Since their first appearance, the Flood have manipulated everything they've had the least bit of contact with. They cannot be defeated by lesser beings. The best you could hope for would be to pass their test of worth (like ancient humanity did when they sacrificed a third of their population in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the galaxy from the Flood), and have the Flood feign defeat, allowing your greatest weapons to appear to work.

I would say it is debatable if Precursors created Flood on purpose. As far we know it seems that creation of Flood happened accidentally when after a plan by some Precursors failed as their pulverized forms became corrupted by time. I very much doubt that Flood is carrying out the will of Precursors.

The same could be said about Primordial who I guess gave Flood it's purpose?

Marine - Gold

The Flood are a tool created by the god-race of the Halo universe (The Precursors) to deal judgement to the Forerunners, and to ensure that Humanity is given a proper chance to attain the Mantle. Since their first appearance, the Flood have manipulated everything they've had the least bit of contact with. They cannot be defeated by lesser beings. The best you could hope for would be to pass their test of worth (like ancient humanity did when they sacrificed a third of their population in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the galaxy from the Flood), and have the Flood feign defeat, allowing your greatest weapons to appear to work.

I would say it is debatable if Precursors created Flood on purpose. As far we know it seems that creation of Flood happened accidentally when after a plan by some Precursors failed as their pulverized forms became corrupted by time. I very much doubt that Flood is carrying out the will of Precursors.

The same could be said about Primordial who I guess gave Flood it's purpose?

It was the forrunner who assumed it was corrupted, that means it maymhave not been corrupted but worked perfectly. From what we learn of the flood in the forrunner trilogy, there was no way they should have lost the war against the forrunner, no Halo should have had the chance to fire. Beyond that there should have been no way Earth or Mars would have escaped full infection by the flood, especially after high charity showed up.

Marine - Onyx

The Flood are a tool created by the god-race of the Halo universe (The Precursors) to deal judgement to the Forerunners, and to ensure that Humanity is given a proper chance to attain the Mantle. Since their first appearance, the Flood have manipulated everything they've had the least bit of contact with. They cannot be defeated by lesser beings. The best you could hope for would be to pass their test of worth (like ancient humanity did when they sacrificed a third of their population in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the galaxy from the Flood), and have the Flood feign defeat, allowing your greatest weapons to appear to work.

I would say it is debatable if Precursors created Flood on purpose. As far we know it seems that creation of Flood happened accidentally when after a plan by some Precursors failed as their pulverized forms became corrupted by time. I very much doubt that Flood is carrying out the will of Precursors.

The same could be said about Primordial who I guess gave Flood it's purpose?

I suggest re-reading the Forerunner Saga with what I've said in mind, and see if you don't come to the same conclusion.The hints are sprinkled throughout the books that the narrative given to the Forerunners isn't the truth of the Flood's existence and motivations. I propose that the Flood's purpose, for which they were created, and which still dictates their actions, is to ensure that humanity is granted the proper oportunity to attain the Mantle.

The incorporeal Precursors are implied to exist outside of time, which would grant an omniscient perspective, which would mean that the transition of their biological avatars into the Flood was known beforehand, making it planned. This would also mean that the Precursors deliberately ensured that the ships with the Flood Spores would land on planets where they'd be found by humanity, and nowhere else, thus placing the burden of blame for the Flood's release on humanity, giving them the responsibility to attempt to contain it. This test was passed when humanity sacrificed a third of their population in an attempt to eradicate the Flood, and we are directly informed that humanity's solution failed, and that the Flood willfully took a dive, pretending it worked for the expressed purpose of convincing the Forerunners that Humanity had to be preserved as to not lose this "secret", without which the Forerunners would have exterminated humanity entirely. The Primordial served as an oracle for humanity right up until it told them the truth about the Flood, which drove them to commit suicide. I can't think of any secret that would have that effect short of the ultimate evil they're fighting actually being the hands of the god-race for all of their existence.The Flood deliberately let the Forerunners drive them out, giving them time to develop and build not one, but two Halo Arrays. The Flood then returned, modulating their strength far below their actual abilities, ensuring that humanity would be preserved on the Lesser Ark before the Flood bothered to weaponize the Neural Physical constructs and obliterate the Forerunners and their Greater Ark.I could go on but suffice to say that through the entire timeline, the Flood is playing the villain (including actually doing terrible things) to manipulate the galaxy to the Precursors' desired end.

ODST - Iron

Can the Flood be lured onto a planet, be contained on it, and implode it (specifically not explode | I don't want any shooting away) so the entire planet and everything on it is superheated? What would happen if all Flood were on a ship and shot to the sun or a black hole? Will that completely kill them, or is it "fated" that the Flood is never permanently erased? Can't fire/superheat "purify" the Flood while simultaneously exterminating it? The Flood is certainly interesting, and I know fire/heat weapons do an exceptional job of killing them, so what can an even bigger flamethrower do?

Recruit - Bronze

The Flood are a tool created by the god-race of the Halo universe (The Precursors) to deal judgement to the Forerunners, and to ensure that Humanity is given a proper chance to attain the Mantle. Since their first appearance, the Flood have manipulated everything they've had the least bit of contact with. They cannot be defeated by lesser beings. The best you could hope for would be to pass their test of worth (like ancient humanity did when they sacrificed a third of their population in a desperate attempt to save the rest of the galaxy from the Flood), and have the Flood feign defeat, allowing your greatest weapons to appear to work.

I would say it is debatable if Precursors created Flood on purpose. As far we know it seems that creation of Flood happened accidentally when after a plan by some Precursors failed as their pulverized forms became corrupted by time. I very much doubt that Flood is carrying out the will of Precursors.

The same could be said about Primordial who I guess gave Flood it's purpose?

I suggest re-reading the Forerunner Saga with what I've said in mind, and see if you don't come to the same conclusion.The hints are sprinkled throughout the books that the narrative given to the Forerunners isn't the truth of the Flood's existence and motivations. I propose that the Flood's purpose, for which they were created, and which still dictates their actions, is to ensure that humanity is granted the proper oportunity to attain the Mantle.

The incorporeal Precursors are implied to exist outside of time, which would grant an omniscient perspective, which would mean that the transition of their biological avatars into the Flood was known beforehand, making it planned. This would also mean that the Precursors deliberately ensured that the ships with the Flood Spores would land on planets where they'd be found by humanity, and nowhere else, thus placing the burden of blame for the Flood's release on humanity, giving them the responsibility to attempt to contain it. This test was passed when humanity sacrificed a third of their population in an attempt to eradicate the Flood, and we are directly informed that humanity's solution failed, and that the Flood willfully took a dive, pretending it worked for the expressed purpose of convincing the Forerunners that Humanity had to be preserved as to not lose this "secret", without which the Forerunners would have exterminated humanity entirely. The Primordial served as an oracle for humanity right up until it told them the truth about the Flood, which drove them to commit suicide. I can't think of any secret that would have that effect short of the ultimate evil they're fighting actually being the hands of the god-race for all of their existence.The Flood deliberately let the Forerunners drive them out, giving them time to develop and build not one, but two Halo Arrays. The Flood then returned, modulating their strength far below their actual abilities, ensuring that humanity would be preserved on the Lesser Ark before the Flood bothered to weaponize the Neural Physical constructs and obliterate the Forerunners and their Greater Ark.I could go on but suffice to say that through the entire timeline, the Flood is playing the villain (including actually doing terrible things) to manipulate the galaxy to the Precursors' desired end.

Recruit - Onyx

Considering they survived the activation of the Halo arrays I’m pretty sure they’ll find a way around everything, however there is a lot to be learned from the created taking the mantle. We might see a break in the cycle!

Marine - Silver

As long as a single Flood spore exists anywhere in the universe or unless the Precursors have a biological kill-switch installed in the Flood's physiology that can terminate all Flood Super Cells everyone all at once or unless AH's cure actually exists then no the Flood cannot be truly contained and eradicated.

Marine - Gold

I agree with what the previous disputants put, that there is more to Flood than simply a task of how to wit it out and clean eradicate, skipping the argument whether emerging of the Flood itself was incidental but cosmologically employed nonetheless or whether was it premeditated, avoiding to also delve into storyline nuances around it that eitherway remain indifferent to the main course of the theme.

@MasterChiefVIP, good point with collapse scenario to avoid random spreading of the Flood tissue even on rocky blast blisters - panspermia case - but is this not a technique that had already been employed by the Forerunners? Similar with influencing the trajectory of a celestial body orbiting a massive star, bending it to a collision course, nonetheless that in turn could take too long to finalize. But Flood is fated, you see. It has a cosmological purpose to fulfill. There is a higher, hyperdimensional intelligence involved in carrying out this endeavour. Biological sentient life will be reborn from the ashes of the Flood, that is my anticipation. The Flood itself is the Ark from which - once things settle down - manifold lifeforms will emerge. How can this happen if the Flood ceases to exist before time? Trying to eradicate the Flood - which even from a theoretical standpoint would take more than both the Humanity and the Covenant forces combined have to offer - is trying to deny the word of the Precursors. Only the genuine Precursors have the power to alter their vision. Who can face and overpower the Precursors in their native realm, gaining absolute control over the matrix of the universe? You see, it becomes plain ridiculous. We cannot kill the Flood without killing ourselves. There is a mystery to that, the mystery of grander unity.

Halo array was invented to resolve the problem through galactic holocaust, but this answer fails to resolve the root of the problem, which remains ready to sprout out again. We may prove we are worthy of becoming the Reclaimers only by accepting our fate in a balanced state of mind. Because this is not us who is to be the bearer of the Mantle. This is to be the Humanity reborn, the Humanity which comes after the Flood. For these times, all will fall. We will die. I will die, you will die, because we are Humans and the fate of a Human is to live, but it is also to die. One third is not enough for the price of inheriting the Mantle. The universe takes all. It is only through loosing the hope and embracing the inevitable, by which we may find certainty, gaining firm grasp of own fate, becoming ourselves the inevitable. Follow the punch. Accept it and do what is yours. There is a piece of price to be paid by each of us.

Precursors representing the absolute infinity are beyond our categories of good and evil. Their intent is of similar scope to the question of meaning of existence. It outscales us. It just is there for the sake of being experienced, whatever there is. We expect much but in the end it all comes down to the ground basics, towards ends matching native capabilities of any human. What is more to be said? Is this enough?

Halo without depth of the Precursors theme and devoid of the interlinked Flood lore is an instant drop case for me, comparable to Star Wars void of the Jedi or the Force notions.

Recruit - Bronze

We could just all go on one planet, make more Halo rings or some other DOOMS DAY device, and decimate all of the other planets. Then all of the flood would be dead, unless one of the spores gets on one of the ships, and well then we are screwed.

Marine - Onyx

The Flood isn't some magical force of nature, though it is as close to one as we've seen in the Haloverse -- it is a living species, of a sort, and has a finite number of cells. If you destroyed every one of those cells, the extant threat would end. There is no reason, however, to believe that there are not more ships containing dormant Precursor goop somewhere out there, waiting to be sprinkled on some dogs and unintentionally incubated/gestated over the course of centuries (yes, that's how the Flood started). And sure, someone could make more -- if the Precursors care enough, that is. I don't doubt that they're out there, across other galaxies.